With Yu Darvish having his no-hitter broken up with two outs in the 9th (AGAIN!), I thought we’d take a look at all no-hitters broken up with 2 outs in the 9th involving Philly teams. We’ll start with games that Phillies and A’s pitchers lost no-nos in the 9th, then later we’ll look at games in which Philly hitters broke up no-hitters.

April 14th, 1915. Herb Pennock (A’s) vs the Boston Red Sox. This game is particularly notable because it came on Opening Day. The Kennett Square native Pennock (above) mowed down the Red Sox for 8 2/3 innings. Then with two outs in the 9th, up came Harry Hooper. The young Philly lefty reared back, fired, and Hooper hit a bouncer just to the left of the mound. Pennock could have grabbed it, but decided to let his 2nd baseman Nap Lajoie do the honors. Lajoie tried to bare hand it, could not, and Hooper made it to first with a single. Pennock had to settle for a one-hit shutout. It would be the highlight of the disastrous 1915 campaign, not made any better when Mack released Pennock, who was quickly scooped up by those same Red Sox. With the Sox and later the Yankees, Pennock went on to a Hall of Fame career. Mack called releasing him the biggest mistake he ever made.

June 5, 1915. Grover Cleveland Alexander (Phillies) vs the St. Louis Cardinals. Less than 2 months after Pennock’s no-no was spoiled, the great Grover Cleveland lost one as well. With two outs in the 9th, light hitting Arthur Butler, a career .241 hitter, punched a single off of Alexander. It was to be a dominant campaign for the great right hander, as he would throw four one-hitters that season (still an MLB record), a season that ended with the Phillies in the World Series against the same Red Sox team Pennock nearly no-hit on Opening Day. Incredibly, the two best pitchers in Phillies history (Steve Carlton and Alexander) threw a combined 11 one-hitters and zero no-hitters in their careers.

So there were two near no-hitters for Philly pitchers within two months of each other and there hasn’t been a single one since in the next 99 years. Baseball is a funny game. But there is one honorable mention, for a guy who pulled off a reverse Yu Darvish. On May 13th, 1954, Robin Roberts gave up a homer to Bobby Adams of the Cincinnati Redlegs to lead off the game. Roberts then mowed down the next 27 guys in order and the Phils won the game 8-1. Another Robin Roberts near no-hitter fun fact: In 1963, while a member of the Orioles, he faced off against Gary Peters of the White Sox. Peters threw a one-hitter, and Roberts had the only hit. It is believed to be the only time a pitcher has had the only hit of a one-hitter. Roberts also once lost a no-hitter with one out in the 9th, but never with two outs.

July 9th, 1890. George Meakim (Louisville Colonels) vs A’s (A different A’s franchise, not the one founded in 1901). With two outs in the 9th, 38 year old George “Orator” Shafer (pictured right) broke up Meakim’s no-hit bid. Orator got his nickname because he talked so much, talking to himself when no-one else was around to listen. Meakim would never come close to another no-hitter, winning 15 games in his short career.

July 23rd, 1896. Cy Young (Cleveland Spiders) vs. Phillies. With two outs in the 9th, Cy Young was one out away from his first ever no-hitter. Unfortunately for him, the man stepping into the batters box was none other than Big Ed Delahanty, who would bat .397 on the year. Delahanty connected on a Young pitch for a clean single, and Young would have to wait another year to collect his first career no-no. You can learn more about his first no-hitter in this pretty cool video.

June 4th, 1908. George “Hooks” Wiltse (NY Giants) vs. Phillies. Right up there with the Armando Galarraga game in terms of controversial perfect games blown. Wiltse had a perfect game going through 8 innings, and the first two Phillies went down meekly in the 9th. Up stepped Phillies pitcher George McQuillan, who was having quite a day at the office as well: he had a shutout going. Wiltse ran the count to 1-2 and then unloaded a strike right down the middle of the plate. Unfortunately for Wiltse, home plate umpire Cy Rigler choked and called it a ball. Shaken, Wiltse hit McQuillan with the next pitch. He calmed down, got the 3rd out, and the game went into extras. In the 10th, the Giants pushed a run across, Wiltse took down the side 1-2-3, keeping his no-hitter intact, though not his perfect game. Rigler later admitted he blew the call, and sent Wiltse cigars for years to try to atone for it.

May 6th, 1918. Dan Griner (Brooklyn Dodgers) vs. Phillies. One look at Griner’s stats, and it’s amazing people didn’t discount wins way before they did. The righty had a perfectly decent 3.49 career ERA, and yet a record of 28-55. On this day, Griner (pictured, left) took the hill for Brooklyn, having not won a game since 1915. In 1916 he was used only in relief, in 1917 he didn’t play at all, and he started 1918 with an 0-3 record. But on this day, he finally seemed to be destined for his moment in the sun. He shut down the Phillies through 8 2/3, and who should come to the plate but our old friend Gavvy Cravath? Cravath cracked a single, spoiling the no-no. Griner did settle down and retire the next batter, however, and get the win. It would be the final win of his Major League career. Griner would be dropped from the team a month later. You can see the box score of that game here.

July 18th, 1972. Steve Arlin (San Diego Padres) vs. the Phillies. After Johan Santana threw that no-hitter last year, the Padres became the answer to the trivia question: what’s the only franchise in baseball to have never thrown a no-hitter? Well, the closest they ever came was in this game in 1972, against the woeful Phillies. That Phillies team is famous for one reason: Steve Carlton won 27 of their 59 games. On this day, Arlin, who had been drafted by the Phillies in 1966, mowed down the Phils easily. With two outs in the 9th, up came Denny Doyle, a career .250 hitter. Arlin quickly ran the count to 1-2. The following comes from an article in Sports Illustrated last year:

That’s when first-year Padres manager Don Zimmer thought Doyle, a lefthanded hitting second baseman, was going to bunt. Zimmer signaled from the dugout to have third baseman Dave Roberts move up about eight feet on the grass.

Doyle, connecting on an inside slider, hit a ball that bounced over Roberts’ head — a ball that he would have been able to field had he been playing in his normal position. Padres shortstop Enzo Hernandez couldn’t make the play.

Arlin gave up a hit to the next batter, too, before closing out the 5-1 win. To this day, he’s still ticked about it.

“It was a case of Zimmer over-managing,” Arlin says. “Zimmer wasn’t the sharpest nail in the toolbox. He was growing into the job, but we knew he (Doyle) wasn’t going to bunt with two strikes. And he never bunted in his life.

“Roberts knew he shouldn’t have been playing in. He took a couple of steps back, but Zimmer waved him in again. If Roberts were back in his regular position, it would have been an easy play. I wasn’t happy. Everything was working.”

After the game, Zimmer knew that he’d made a mistake so came up to Arlin and handed him a razor blade, and “told me to go ahead and use it on him.”

August 3, 1990. Doug Drabek (Pirates) vs the Phillies. Although the game was in the Vet, by the 9th inning, the home crowd was cheering hard for a no-hitter. After all, it was far more likely than the Phils making up the 11-0 deficit they were in. After Drabek retired Charlie Hayes on a grounder to short and Ricky Jordan swinging, up stepped Campusano, who had replaced Lenny Dykstra in the 7th inning. Drabek ran the count to 3-2. Campusano carried the next pitch to right center and the no-no was over. The home crowd booed, which upset the Phillies. Said Tom Herr, “It’s kind of frustrating when the fans are rooting against the home team.”

In 1980, the fiery Dallas Green led the Philadelphia Phillies to their first ever World Series title. Just over a year later, Green was taken from the Phils, as the Chicago Cubs hired him to be their GM. He immediately went to work, firing Chicago fan favorites and bringing in Phillies players such as Keith Moreland, Dickie Noles, and Dan Larsen. But it was on January 27th, 1982, that the most memorable trade between the Phillies and the Cubs took place. The end result was the worst trade ever in a long Phillies history of terrible trades.

As soon as he ascended to the GM position, Green recognized that the Cubs needed some veteran leadership, and called his old friend Bill Giles in the Phillies front office. Phillies President Giles and Bowa were locked in a tense contract dispute, with Bowa wanting a 3-year extension and Giles (and GM Paul Owen) loathe to give so many years to a shortstop who was already 36-years old. Furthermore, the Phillies had two young shortstops waiting in the wings who were expected to take over at short in the near future. They were Luis Aguayo and Ryne Sandberg (above left).

By early January, rumors of an impending deal began to appear in the papers. In an interview on Philadelphia radio on January 7th, an angry Bowa said that the trade with the Cubs then being discussed by the two front offices would send him, Dick Davis, and Luis Aguayo to the Cubs for the all-glove no-bat Ivan DeJesus and a pitcher named Bill Caudill. DeJesus would essentially be a cheaper and slightly younger placeholder than Bowa until Sandberg came up, while also shoring up the defense.

But though the trade seemed imminent at that time, it wouldn’t be completed for another three weeks. Why? Because Dallas Green didn’t want Aguayo. He wanted the other young Phillies shortstop. The following comes from an interview with Green in the book Almost a Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the 1980 Phillies:

“Ivan DeJesus was a proven-and marketable-shortstop. At first the Phillies tried to keep Ryne Sandberg from us. But I insisted on him if I was to make the deal. I think the Phillies knew Ryne was a good athlete. They just had no place to play him for two or three years. They were going for a pennant and there was some skepticism that he could play shortstop in the majors. Schmidt was at third. I always thought Ryne could play center field, but Maddox was there. The Phillies never really thought of him as a second baseman and besides Trillo was already there.”

On January 27th, Green finally convinced the Phillies to part with Sandberg instead of Aguayo, and the trade went through. The papers paid little attention to Sandberg. After all, the young shortstop had hit a paltry .167 in 1981 in 13 games played for the Phils. He was good, but most people saw him as a throw in on the deal. Bowa (right) realized his potential, however. When told that the “throw-in” was Sandberg, Bowa responded, “Well then, I was the guy they threw in because Sandberg is going to be a great player.” Those were the only kind words Bowa had to say about the deal, as he lashed out at the Phillies front office, telling the Daily News that the Phillies had once been like a family, but “That all changed when Giles took over. It’s all corporate now. No more family.”

Furious at the Phils, Bowa decided to get back at them by helping to groom Sandberg into a star. Again from the excellent book above, Cubs teammate Dickie Noles talks about Bowa and Sandberg.

“Ryne and Bowa were inseperable. They were at the ballpark before anyone else, working their tails off, taking ground balls, hitting, working the double play. I think Bowa also loosened him up a bit. Ryne was a real quiet guy. But Bowa got him to come out of his shell, to talk a little trash. He gave him a little cockiness, but in a good way.”

By 1984, Ryne Sandberg was the best 2nd baseman in baseball, and was named NL MVP that year. He would go to the All-Star game 10 times and win the Gold Glove 9 times. His career .989 fielding percentage is the best ever for an MLB 2nd baseman. He is universally acknowledged as one of the best 10 2nd baseman in MLB history.

Ivan DeJesus turned out to be OK. He played for the Phils for three years, and it must be noted that his excellent defense did help the team make the 1983 World Series. And Luis Aguayo, the shortstop the Cubs didn’t want? He turned out to be…adequate is perhaps the kindest term, a utility player for the Phils for 9 years. As Whitey succinctly put it during one game during Aguayo’s tenure in Philadelphia: “Luis Aguayo is on deck. Aguayo hasn’t exactly been reminding anybody of Rogers Hornsby lately.”

Remarkably, most of these men’s futures would all also be tied in somehow to the Phillies. Sandberg has of course become manager of the team. Bowa was their manager from 2001-2004, and was just named bench coach. Green would later return to the Phils’ front office as a senior advisor. And Luis Aguayo was the New York Mets third base coach in 2008, the year they collapsed in September and blew it against the Philadelphia Phillies.

For 13 long years, Buzz Arlett toiled in the minors, putting up incredibly gaudy numbers as both a pitcher and a hitter. Major league teams came calling, but his team, the Oakland Oaks, wanted far more money for his services (minor league teams used to sell their players to the Majors) than any team was ready to spend. And so, year after year, he destroyed Pacific Coast League pitching, setting a record for most home runs in the minor leagues that still stands today and regularly hitting in the high .300s. Finally, in 1931, the pitiful Philadelphia Phillies decided to pay the money and give him a shot.

He started the 1931 season on fire, and after six weeks, he was leading the majors with a .385 average and had already hit 11 homers. Fans at the Baker Bowl had something to cheer about for the first time since 1915. But he hurt his leg while sliding, then broke his thumb in June. His defense, always a liability, had certainly not improved with age and injuries, and he made regular blunders in the field. He would finish the season with a .313 average, 18 homers, and 72 RBIs. Despite those numbers, the Phillies decided to waive him, and he was claimed by minor league giants the Baltimore Orioles, where he played for several more years. He would play in the minors until 1937, never again getting a cup of coffee in the pros. In 1984, SABR named him the greatest minor league ballplayer of all time.

It’s almost here! Our second annual real time World Series**, where I’ll be reporting on the Series as it happens, 83 years to the day after it happened the first time. I’ll get exclusive photos, find interviews with the principles, write it all in present tense as if I’m covering it, and we’ll “watch” the games in real time. Oh, and for this series we’ve actually got some video! Going to be a ton of fun. I’ll start introducing you to the teams, their managers, and star players next week. But a brief background on the two teams:

The Cubs were led by Philly-born manager Joe McCarthy, who grew up idolizing Connie Mack. He would become better known as manager of the Yankees in the 1930s and 40s. The Cubs had run away with the pennant that year, going 98-54 and winning the NL by 10.5 games over Pittsburgh.

The A’s were led, of course, by Connie Mack, and had absolutely throttled the AL that year, never leading the League by less than 7 games after June 10th. The Yankees, with essentially the same lineup as the 1927 Murderer’s Row, finished the season 18 games behind the A’s. An excellent Sports Illustrated piece in 1996 called the The Team that Time Forgot, and they are undoubtedly one of the greatest baseball team’s in Major League history. Tom Verducci has them ranked 4th all time.

So get ready to step into the time machine next week. We’re going to have a lot of fun with this.

**To check out our coverage of the 1911 World Series we did last October, click here.

October 4, 1929 (CHICAGO)- Hello there sports fans, Hap Jackson here. So glad you’ve decided to join us here at the Philadelphia Bugle for exclusive coverage of the 1929 World Series between the National League champion CHicago Cubs and American League champion Philadelphia Athletics. Let’s take a look at the history of these squads, starting with Chicago.

CHICAGO CUBS– The Cubs were founded as the White Stockings in 1871, though they didn’t play the next season due to the Great Chicago Fire. In 1876, they became one of the charter members of the National League. Led by and later owned by Albert Spalding (founder of Spalding Sporting goods), the team was quite successful in the 1880s, and went through several name changes, first the Colts and then the Orphans.

In 1902, Spalding sold the team to Jim Hart, and they became known as the Cubs. Led by Tinkers, Evers and Chance, (Does any schoolboy in America not know the poem about them by heart?) the squad was the bee’s knees, winning 4 pennants and 2 World Series between 1906 and 1910. That includes the 1910 World Series, which they lost to Mack and the A’s, 4 games to 1. Therefore their last World Series win was way back in 1908. Can they end their 21-year drought this year? We’ll soon find out.

Strangely, the Cubs are both owned and managed by Philadelphia natives. The team is owned by William Wrigley, who took over majority ownership in 1921. They are led on the field by Joe McCarthy, who took over management duties in 1926.

PHILADELPHIA A’S– The A’s got their start in 1901 (There were other teams called the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1870s but none was a forerunner of this team). The new American League wanted a team in Philly to compete with the Phillies. Former Pittsburgh Pirate catcher and manager Connie Mack agreed to take over control of the team and purchase 25% of it. He convinced sporting good magnate Ben Shibe to become majority owner.

The team then went about poaching players from the National League, including the highly controversial signing of Nap Lajoie. The battle between the Phillies and the A’s for Lajoie was so acrimonious that he was finally sent packing to Cleveland. Less than 10 years after forming, the team was a dominant force in the majors, winning the World Series in 1910, 1911, and 1913, and getting upset in the 1914 Series. But after Mack sold all of his star players in 1915, the team tanked harder than any team ever has before, going 43-109 in 1915. They finished last 7 straight years before finally starting to right the ship in the past few years. In 1927, the A’s finished 2nd to the Yankees, and in 1928, they missed a pennant by 2 games. This year, they dominated, and cruised to the pennant, rocking Ruth and the Yankees by 18 games.

by S.O. Grauley, staff writer, Philadelphia Inquirer. The following are excerpts from a wonderful piece on Connie Mack by S.O. Grauley in today’s Inquirer.

Connie Mack has regained his peak. After fifteen long, nerve-racking years, crammed with worries, brimful of disaster and invariably discouraging, the “Lean Leader” of the Athletics has again that honor which was his so many times when the famous White Elephants ruled the baseball kingdom.

Year after year, since the utter rout of his champions of 1914, Mack could never build a winner…He faced long bleak seasons of untold bitter disappointments and most discouraging endings. Seven times he finished the AMerican League season in last place.

Such a showing would have driven most baseball men to despair. Many would have tossed up their arms and and said, “What’s the use? Fate is against me.”

But Mack, like Ben Hur, who in the climax of the chariot race, was grateful for the grueling years at the oars of the galley, became hardened to those sneers. The elongated leader of the club had fait in his own convictions, own judgement and was firm in his determination to again prove to Philadelphians…that he could come back. Year after year, during those lean seasons when the Athletics were the door mat of the American League Connie often was assailed with the sneering remark, “Get another manager, youre too old to stay in modern baseball.”

But those who sneered and jeered at the silent man of the team, the man who has become famous again through his persistency to come back and win games by signaling his players’ movements in the field, via his famous scorecard, are now the first to acclaim this man, who is now nearly three score and ten, as the greatest manager in baseball.

That he and his wonderful team will go into the 1929 World Series bearing the good wishes of every local fan is quite evident. Timely hitting, good pitching, and a strong defense has carried the A’s to the American championship. Well managed, well balanced, and well executed plays enabled the Macks to sweep aside the Yankee menace and bring to Philadelphia a pennant so greatly desired.

Philadelphians always made much of the Athletics. Ever since 1901 when the American League swept east, planted a team here and there on the Atlantic coast, fans took to the new invasion. Here in Philadelphia the Athletics went over big…The fight between the new league and the National over players and the showing of the Athletics in the race brought Philadelphia fandom flocking to the gates of the new park out 29th street. So popular became the Mackmen that the expression of “Follow the crowd”, which the Inquirer had so timely suggested as a slogan, became famous throughout the land of baseball.

Twenty nine years of baseball. Seven pennant winners, six second places. Surely Mack has just cause to feel proud of this achievment. The Inquirer extends hearty congratulations to the Man Who Came Back.

The World Series starts Monday in Chicago. You may not be able to go to Chicago, but you can still enjoy all of the sights and sounds of the game LIVE! That’s right, with an Atwater Kent radio, the highest quality radio in all the land, you can listen to the great Graham McNamee and his sidekick, the young but enthusiastic Ted Husing, call every pitch of every game. As you know, Atwater Kent radios are the finest made in the country, as Mr. Kent himself would not put his name on them if they were not. Since opening his plant at 4745 Wissahickon Avenue in 1924, he has produced nothing but the highest quality radios. They are the largest maker of radios in the US, with their 12,000 workers making one million radios annually. As a large manufacturer, he can pass the savings on to you. (A picture of that same model seen above is posted below.)

CLEVELAND, Oct. 3, 1929 (AP Story)- An interesting story from the AP this week, really makes you wonder about the future of baseball. :

The Major Leagues of the future will transport their teams in airplanes and may…include one or two Pacific cities, believes Billy Evans, general manager of the Cleveland Indians. Evans gave his views in turning down an airplane company’s efforts to sell the Cleveland club a ship to fly around the circuit, although he was impressed by the amount of time that could be saved and the elimination of spending nights in train berths.

And yes, that’s the same Billy Evans who made his bones for so many years as an umpire (left). His Indians finished the year the 1929 season with an impressive 81-71 record.